Intel 82845G/GL

[Brian Thomason]

Hendricks David W. wrote:

>That's a graphics chip, correct? Unfortunately, we're still working on 
>initializing VGA BIOSes (Particularly on GeForce cards).
>
Come to find out, it is a graphics chip (I don't know hardware very 
well, so please bear with me :-) )

I also know very little in the way of LinuxBIOS and how it works. It is 
disheartening to hear GeForce cards aren't supported as of yet.

>However, there are some boards which have VGA working in LinuxBIOS, like 
>the VIA EPIA mini-itx board with an integrated graphics controller. 
>
I believe our resellers sell some PC's with this installed, so that is 
good to hear.

>I haven't tried booting KDE with it yet, but I imagine the BIOS and kernel 
>could load at least as fast as KDE itself.
>
>As for your Intel 82845G/GL, could you please post lspci output?
>
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL [Brookdale-G] Chipset Host 
Bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL [Brookdale-G] Chipset AGP 
Bridge (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #1) (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #2) (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #3) (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA/DB PCI Bridge (rev 82)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DB ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DB ICH4 IDE (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB SMBus (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Audio 
(rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 
MX/MX 400] (rev b2)
02:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. 
RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

> As I recall, the 82845 is on the i845 chipset,
>
How would I verify this?

>uses the 82801DB PCI  controller and the e7501 (ICH4) memory controller hub. 
>
You know your hardware don't you? :-)

>Eric Beiderman got that chipset, or at least a very similar one, working with the Supermicro 
>X5DPR in the freebios1 tree (I don't think it's in freebios2 yet). I can't 
>say you'll get VGA output without some serious hacking around, but you 
>should at least be able to boot it, get some serial output, and SSH in if 
>all goes well and your kernel boots.
>
:-(  Looks like I'll just have to track down a box with the VIA EPIA 
mini-itx board you referred to.

>By the way, and I hate to get off-topic, how is Micheal doing in 
>Europe? I've read about the lawsuits on The Register, but they don't seem 
>to have a very positive outlook :(
>
Unfortunately, I'm not permitted to discuss that, but you can read about 
them as they happen on ChoicePC.com.

Many thanks for the prompt and helpful reply.

-Brian